Thursday News Threads

Vampire Weekend‘s new album, Contra, is due out January 12th. It appears the band were trying some kind of underhanded viral marketing scheme to leak the word out early. Now their “faked” website, IThinkUrAContra.com, just forwards to their official one. Meh.

The album cover for VW's forthcoming album, Contra

Do you know which band whips it good and is coming to Seattle for two shows this November? One guess. That’s right, ladies and gentleman, it’s Devo! 11/8 and 11/9 at The Moore. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday.) Any fans purchasing tickets online will gain access to three unreleased demos, including a four-track version of “Whip It.”

Mary Travers, one third of the highly influential 60s folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary, has passed away. That group’s gentle harmonies and sharp performances became iconic and important parts of civil-rights demonstrations and anti-war rallies throughout the 1960s and remain one of the bigger influences of many modern folk musicians.

Smashing Pumpkins songwriter Billy Corgan will be releasing a new 44-song opus for absolutely no cost whatsoever. He wrote in his blog, “Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.” This day is the greatest.

90s lofi indie rock band Pavement reportedly are reuniting a year from now, on September 21, 2010 in New York City. What? Really?!? Sweet.

You probably have been living under a rock if you haven’t heard about that Kanye West Thing That Has Filled TheNewsAndBecomeAMeme. So, um, I’ma let you finish reading this entry without any more saturation, but it’s pretty funny.

Following up on a previously mentioned item, Death Cab For Cutie’s single for the new Twilight sequel is now available for streaming on the MTV website. In related news, Ben Gibbard has teamed up with Jay Farrar (of Son Volt) to record One Fast Move or I’m Gone, an album inspired by Jack Kerouac’s 1962 novel Big Sur. It’s being released October 20th.

Elton John was told by the Ukranian minister that he is not allowed to adopt a child from that country. Those homophobic — wait, what? Apparently he’s just too old. Oh, okay. Fair enough.